Craig Berube addresses his team choking in the playoffs.

The Maple Leafs failed to close out a series on Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators and, although they have maintained the lead for the vast majority of this series, some familiar questions about the Maple Leafs ability to perform in the playoffs are already being asked.

Following their overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators in Game 4 of their opening round Stanley Cup playoff series, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube was forced to respond to questions about his team's reputation for choking at this time of year. To his credit, Berube cut off the reporter before the question was even finished and immediately dismissed the notion that this was the same team from years past.

"I don't think that was the case tonight," said Berube cutting off the question. "I thought our team played extremely hard and did a lot of great things."

As if to highlight the fact that the question had been unfair, Berube pointed to a statistic that he clearly felt proved his team had played hard despite the loss.

"We gave up four shots in 2 periods," said Berube. "I mean I thought we defended hard and played hard."

So what was Berube's explanation for the Maple Leafs losing another big game when they could have closed out a series? 

"Bounces can go one way or another," said Berube. "I'm not too concerned about it, I thought our team was ready to go and did a lot of good things tonight. It didn't work out."

If these questions are already being asked after the team's first loss of the playoffs, they will only get louder if the Maple Leafs give Ottawa a way back into this series.